


Up To There

by MiyabiDreams



Series: Elysia [4]
Category: Mass Effect
Genre: F/M, Flirting, Fluff, Gen, Late night munchies, Mass Effect 1
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-20
Updated: 2015-04-20
Packaged: 2018-03-24 21:35:57
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,128
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3785074
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MiyabiDreams/pseuds/MiyabiDreams
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In which Joker discovers just how sexy an Alliance-issue hoodie can be.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Up To There

If it hadn't been for the scarf, he never would have recognized her. Sure it was twisted in such a way that it was up out of the way in something almost resembling a braid, but it was unmistakably that...what was the word for it? _No, brain, it is not a **fajita**._

It wasn't often that he voluntarily hauled himself out of his seat at the helm for more than a trip to the head, but the need for a cup of coffee, even the Alliance issue instant crap, was enticing enough to draw anyone out of their hole when it had gotten so late that it was early. When Joker started toward the mess, all he wanted was to fill his thermos and go back to his chair. Those legs, though... This was the first time Joker had ever seen their Commander in anything besides full armor or her uniform, and he could hardly register what she _was_ wearing, his eyes flicking between a few different points, focused on what she _wasn't_. Who knew that she was hiding all that under the Alliance blues?

It wasn't that she was dressed terribly immodestly; in fact, her clothes were quite plain, especially compared to her favored set of armor. Standard-issue N7 hooded sweater that was about four sizes too large for her, over a plain white tanktop that was only visible when she shifted just so. A pair of shorts so small that could have been a simple pair of underwear if it weren't for the cut of them. They were nearly hidden under the bottom hem of the sweater, putting into question whether he'd actually seen them at all, or if they were just a mental censor bar that his startled brain had thrown up to preserve the Commander's privacy.

_Goddamn, those legs though._

He could have waxed poetic about Shepard's legs. Muscular, but not offputtingly so, thighs sculpted and flexing subtly. He entertained for a moment that if they were wrapped around his head, she could crush his skull with very little effort. Tapered, weirdly hairless, free even of the stubble that came with shaving. Scarred here and there, trophies of the battle that she was constantly fighting to keep the peace with her new power within the Special Tactics and Reconnaissance, and from before, when she'd been rising through the ranks of the Alliance. It wasn't always easy to equate this tiny woman with the fierce warrior that stormed into warzones with a shotgun in one hand and a Warp being prepared in the other.

For instance, right now, she was standing on her tiptoes, those majestic legs stretched out fully as she attempted to reach something that was just out of reach on one of the upper shelves. She was too sleepy, it seemed, to simply pull it to her with her biotics. She just really wanted that little canister of cinnamon.

When it was placed on the counter in front of her, she blinked down at it owlishly. Suddenly it was right there in reach. How had it gotten there?

"How long have you been standing there watching me?" she muttered, looking over her shoulder at Joker as he stood back against the nearest counter looking a little too smug for her liking.

"Oh, about since you decided that your coffee really needed stuff in it," he replied. Just the tone of his voice was teasing her for liking cinnamon and sugar and cream in her coffee. It was barely coffee, in his eyes, just coffee-flavored cream.

"Coffee is disgusting without _stuff_ in it," she replied, turning away and shrugging a shoulder up haughtily as she finished stirring her little coffee concoction then pointedly walked around him, her stride even. He was always impressed with the way she walked, like a soldier with a purpose, no matter what she was doing. There was no hip-swaying, sashaying, girly nonsense. He recalled once that she had admitted to knowing that she was attractive, but the way she behaved, she didn't make any attempt to emphasize it. It was simply a thing that they both knew.

"Say what you want about it, Commander, black coffee has saved more lives than the entire Arcturus fleet," Joker replied, following after her as she went. He would leave her alone if she took the elevator up to her quarters, but he was in just enough of a mood to poke and prod, as she seemed to enjoy doing to him whenever they had a little bit of quiet time. "So why are you even awake? Didn't you turn in when everyone else wandered off?"

The look on Shepard's face told him what he wanted to know before she ever opened her mouth: the Thorian, the gigantic, horrifying, parasitic plant organism that had forced her into a position that she'd had to risk killing an entire colony just to get out alive. The moment she'd stepped on board and instructed him to take off, it had been made pretty damn clear to him that she wasn't ok with anything that had just happened. Yeah, she'd managed to get out without killing anything but the disgusting plant clones, the Creepers, she'd called them, but he could tell that she was a hair's breadth from puking on his shoes. He'd simply done as she'd ordered without question, pulling out and engaging the FTL drive to get them into an entirely different system. She'd seemed satisfied with that at the time.

Seeing her now, it was clear that not only was she still shaken, it was actually causing her a sleepless night. He didn't want to bring up that she'd done her best, of course she had, and she'd even done it better than most anyone in the Alliance could have, with not even one casualty besides the single self-inflicted death; it was likely that Alenko, who had gone into that particular clusterfuck with her, had already said as much, and the reminder of their hellish time on Feros was completely unnecessary right now. So, he decided to go a completely different route.

"So Commander, I can't help but notice that you're not wearing any pants."

"...Indeed."

"Maybe you should walk around without pants more often," Joker continued as they walked. Was Shepard actually keeping her pace slow so that he could walk with her? Or maybe he'd just learned to keep up with her on one crutch.

"And get my ass shot off?" Shepard snorted, and he looked down at her to catch that little dimple in her cheek with the sideways quirk of her smile. "Thanks, but I think I'll leave that for the strippers at Chora's Den."

"I was thinking more around here. At night. When you're walking around in my general vicinity."

And there was that look again, that one that was somewhere between 'I will set you on fire' and actual amusement. He'd come to learn what would earn him that look from her, and when the time seemed right he would pick his words just as carefully as she would when she was brokering hostage negotiations, until it earned him a possible fractured shoulder and a smile, overlaid with that look.

"Or you could just forego the sweater entirely," Joker continued, the smirk on his face mirrored by that on Shepard's even as she punched him in the shoulder. It wasn't hard enough to break the bone, but he still muttered a slightly offended 'ow' and rubbed the spot.

"If I start moving through the ship in my pee-jays, then you should be required to do the same, Joker."

"And dazzle everyone with my perfect example of the male form? I wouldn't spoil the crew like that, it would just be cruel."

"And here you were giving _me_ hell for saying that kind of thing."

_The difference is that you actually believe it,_ his mind volunteered, but it never left his lips. He just stuck his tongue out at her, as if they weren't commanding officer and flight lieutenant, but children in a school yard. He was actually surprised when she returned the gesture though. "Oh shit, is that an official reprimand?" He held up his hands in mock intimidation, would have pressed them to his face had he not been holding his coffee.

"You can just stow it, Lieutenant," Shepard huffed, though the smile on her face told him that she was anything but upset with him. She was really goddamn expressive when she wasn't out in public, that was for sure.

"Come on Commander, you know I can't make life easy on you. Gotta keep you on your toes." Joker mounted the stairs leading up to the CIC ahead of her, starting in his slow, slightly hopping progress up them. He refused to let her help him, shrugging the hand off when she laid it on the back of his arm, but he let her keep an eye on him at least. He had nearly toppled back down them more than once, ending up fracturing his wrist catching himself on the handrail before he could hit the floor. Nobody had warned him about the stairs on the Normandy. He vowed that if he ever got a new posting, he would demand that an elevator be installed.

Shepard rolled her eyes, pressing her hand to the holo when they got close enough to the door. "I'm so far up on my toes that I might as well wear pointe slippers on the battlefield."

"Do what now?"

Guiding Joker around the CIC walkway, Shepard started to explain that apparently Williams was into art, poetry, soft stuff, and had been giving her an overview of things like classic literature and dance, actually explaining a few things that Shepard had been lost on. "But don't tell her that I told you about this alright? She doesn't want it spread around that she's into 'sensitive stuff'."

"Williams? Gunnery Chief Williams, who can drill you between the eyes at a hundred yards? Shit, she might as well be Warrior Poet Williams."

"Don't let that get back to her, alright? She already squints at me over having non-humans on board."

"But you two seem to be getting along pretty well otherwise," Joker pointed out as they had to pause and let him walk up the couple of steps leading to the walkway to the helm. "Heard you talking to her before when you came back from the mission on Luna, you're getting pretty friendly. Not exactly Alliance protocol there, Commander."

"Williams is valuable to this team, but she has a lot on her mind to sort out. And she's a lot more interesting than Kaidan." Shepard's lip curled slightly at that; the Lieutenant had been misconstruing her intentions since day one, accusing her of flirting when she was simply trying to learn about his history prior to his Alliance service. After all, it was best to know where her crew was sitting, stability-wise, and after hearing from the doctor that Kaidan was subject to migraines, she'd started keeping a closer eye on him. Couldn't have him collapsing in the middle of a battle, after all.

Joker snorted as he finally reached his chair, his arm propping on the headrest as he put his crutch down against the nearest bulkhead. "A brick is more interesting than Kaidan," he pointed out, and was rewarded by one of those quiet, tinkling laughs that made something in his heart catch and warm up. "I rarely get out of this chair and _I'm_ more interesting than Kaidan," he added, giving Shepard a sidelong look, then settled back down into his station, taking a swallow of his coffee then swiping his fingers through one of the holographic readouts to monitor the fluctuations of their drive output. He tried not to react when he felt his seat move the slightest bit, and judging by the warmth right next to his ear, Shepard had just leaned her hip against the back rest of his chair. He was suddenly very aware of her presence, of the sound of her swallowing a mouthful of her not-really-coffee. He froze with his hands raised with he felt a hand light briefly on his shoulder.

"As true as that is, and as much as I've enjoyed this talk, I think I should go. Try to get some rest before we have to get to Noveria."

"Right, wouldn't want to be caught unawares on a planet that's nothing but corporate scandal," Joker muttered. He glanced back over his shoulder as Shepard moved off, taking in her stride then shaking his head, trying very goddamn hard to ignore the heat radiating from his ears. Had they been doing that the entire time?

_I'm gonna get court martialed..._

**Author's Note:**

> Ok so as you've probably discovered by now, I'm not posting these in a chronological order so much as whenever a certain scene comes to me, just a bunch of little stand-alone things that I may consolidate later when/if I've covered as much as I can think of.
> 
> I had a thought about Elysia having an on/off relationship with Joker over the course of ME1 that breaks off amicably before she ever meets Thane and decided to roll with it. That way I can have my Shoker, and still have my thing with Thane without having to retcon anything.
> 
> Also this is inspired in part by [Gefionne](http://archiveofourown.org/users/Gefionne/pseuds/Gefionne)'s stunning Shoker fic, Watercolour. Thank you for your lovely writing and for actually talking back when I comment at you.


End file.
